AFRICA TRADE CONFERENCE

Introduction

This is the 2nd Edition of the “Africa Trade Report” by the Regal Africa Group. The report highlights insights from the Africa Trade Conference that was held on 10th and 11th November 2022. The conference was carried out virtually out of Nairobi, Kenya.

The theme this year was “Empowering Africans to participate in Intra Africa Trade and Global Trade sustainably”. The conference aims to inspire “Trading for Development”. The Stakeholders who attended the ATC2022 were from various African countries, the African Diaspora, the Global Business community, and Global Trade experts.

The conference was structured into four main sessions over the two days:

ATC Day One Morning: Intra Africa Trade Session

ATC Day One Afternoon: Global Trade Session

ATC Day Two Morning: Digital Trade Session

ATC Day Two Afternoon: Women in Trade Session

The Africa Trade Conference is an annual conference that seeks to play an important role in facilitating dialogue, advancing knowledge and information about wealth creation and trade opportunities in Africa. The ultimate goal is Wealth Creation for all Africans and Africa's Economic Development. The conference is brought to the world by Regal Africa, an organization that focuses on assisting our clients to “Create Wealth” through trade and investment. Regal Africa focuses on Transforming Families by enabling them to create generational wealth, Transforming Communities through family businesses, and Impacting Nations through participation in international trade and Investments.

Conference Main Objective

The Africa Trade Conference targets businesses that are interested in Intra Africa trade and Global trade opportunities. We will also discuss the opportunities that digital trade presents for Africans and why supporting women in trade is important for sustainable trade that leads to economic development. The conference is beneficial to trade experts and professionals who support the private and public sectors in Africa.

With the ongoing implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the growth of digital trade on the continent, we believe that this is the right time to have discussions on how we can support African businesses to be part of international trade in a sustainable manner.

Conference Specific Objectives:

Growth of more African businesses participating in Intra Africa Trade and Global Trade

Create awareness on how the AfCFTA will directly facilitate trade

Increase awareness of how businesses can participate in digital trade

Ensure more women gain access to information that enables them to export their goods and services in Africa and globally.

Encourage more businesses to use professional advisors to guide them on capacity building, access to markets, and access to finance.

Create a better understanding of what each African country produces and how Africans can form regional supply chains, global value chains, and manufacturing hubs.

Create awareness of great global African brands

Atc Day One Morning Session

Presentation: “Keynote Speech”

Bongolo Joy Kenewendo Africa Director and Special AdviserUN Climate Change High-Level Champions Keynote Speaker

After a detailed introduction by Anne Gaitha, Bogolo opened the address by emphasizing the transition from summits to solutions. Urgency was placed on implementation, sustainability, and unlocking finance to fund sustainable development. Bogolo lauded the recognition of climate finance and action as a catalyst for sustainable development and the eventual implementation of the developmental goals, based on the Paris agreement with common but differentiated responsibilities

She encouraged the push for increased investors as opposed to aid. Her organization recognized the need for the AfCFTA and Agenda 23 to create a joint strategy to build a green development pathway. Bogolo was confident of the potential benefit to Africa as they joined the global mission that was expressed at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27). She gave an example of the need for companies to come together to create sustainability.

Another aggregation example is the Africa Business Leaders Coalition which collectively employs 1.5 million people across the continent. They have a collective commitment and futuristic approach to a green competitive economy and impact. The Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance. The insurers committed up to 14 million dollars to address climate and natural risks through an African Climate Risk Facility.

“The AfCFTA is a people’s project and will only move faster if non-state actors start to play a role in it and recognize that aggregation, coalitions, and coming together as a continent is the way to go and ensure that we have faster development,”

Bogolo Kenewendo

She re-emphasized the need for Africa to work together for all of us to get to the Africa we want. Regenerative agriculture was one of the practices that she credited to African culture that was abandoned for modernization. She encouraged Africa to see conservation as a return back to our indigenous knowledge and not a new concept. Bogolo concluded the speech by stating that we can be leaders in crafting the path for development and sustainability. She ended by addressing the issue of the private sector in African countries in delivering nationally determined obligations. Bogolo encouraged awareness among African countries so that they could recognize the opportunity in climate finance and sustainable solutions. Finally, she insisted on the importance of positioning so that green capital could be injected from within the continent. The role of the continent was to align with the rest of the globe to embrace what is soon to become a norm.

Watch Bogolo’ Keynote today on RegalAfrica TV via https://youtu.be/kn51u2HA5Wc